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%m puHic putliltnjs, 



P E N N S Q TT A R E, 



IN THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA. 



ADDRESS OF HON. BENJAMIN HARRIS BREWSTER, AT THE 
LAYING OP THE CORNER STONE, JULY 4, 1874; 

WITH A DESCRIPTION OF THE BUILDINGS, 

THE STATISTICS AND PROGRESS OF THE WORK UP TO 

JANUARY I, 1880, 

AND A SUMMARY OF LEGISLATIVE AND MUNICIPAL 
ACTION RELATING TO THE UNDERTAKING; 

WITH A BRIEF HISTORY OF EVENTS PERTAINING 
THERETO. 



PRINTED FOR THE COMMISSIONERS. 



PHILADELPHIA 
1880. 




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PENN SQUARE, 



IN THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA. 



ADDRESS OF HON. BENJAMIN HARRIS BREWSTER, AT THE 
LAYING OF THE CORNER STONE, JULY 4, 1874; 

WITH A DESCRIPTION OF THE BUILDINGS, 

THE STATISTICS AND PROGRESS OF THE WORK UP TO 

JANUARY I, 1880, 

AND A SUMMARY OF LEGISLATIVE AND MUNICIPAL 
ACTION RELATING TO THE UNDERTAKING; 

WITH A BRIEF HISTORY OF EVENTS PERTAINING 
THERETO. 



PRINTED FOR THE COMMISSIONERS. 



PHILADELPHIA: 

1880. 







PRESS OF HENRY B. ASHMEAD, 

IIOl AND 1 104 SaNSOM StKEET, PHILADELPHIA. 



v^ COMMISSIONERS 

f Jar tin; ffivcrtiou of the gubUc §uiUHufljS. 

^ 

THOMAS J. BARGER, THOMAS E. GASKILL, 

WILLIAM BRICE, JOHN L. HILL, 

ISAAC S. CASSIN, HIRAM MILLER, 

JOSEPH L. CAVEN, RICHARD PELTZ, 

SAMUEL W. CATTELL, SAMUEL C. PERKINS, 

MAHLON H. DICKINSON, GEORGE A. SMITH, 
WILLIAM S. STOKLEY. 



OFFICERS. 



^^vcsidcnt. 

SAMUEL C. PERKINS. 



^Cfvrtavy. 

FRANCIS DE HAES JANVIER. 

SIvcais'uvfv. 

J. J. MARTIN. 

^oUfitov. 

CHARLES H. T. COLLIS. 



givchitcct. 

JOHN McARTHUR, Jr. 

gi,s,&».stant,s'. 

JOHN ORD, Jr. THOMAS U. WALTER. 

Jf«l)ciiutciulcnt. 
WILLIAM c. Mcpherson. 



The bill providing for the erection of New Public 
Buildings for the City of Philadelphia passed both branches 
of the State Legislature in April, 1870, and on the ^th of 
the following August, the Governor ajfxed his signature 
thereto. 



. f»«'L_ _ JlS 




NORTH. 

I 



SCALE- 



BO FEKT. 



-PRINCIPAL FLOOR-NEW PUBLIC BUILDINGS— PHILADELPHIA. 
John McArthcb, Jb. Architect. 



F. Gutekunst. 



Philadelphii 



AN ACT 



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mttott of Kjc |}uMk ^uildiiifl^. 



An Act to provide for the erection of all the Public Buildings required to 
accommodate the Courts^ and for all Municipal purposes^ in the City of 
Philadelphia^ and to require the appropriation^ by said City^ of Penn 
Squares^ at Broad and Market Streets^ to the Academy of Fine Arts^ the 
Academy of Natural Sciences, the Franklin Institute, and the Philadelphia 
Library, in the event of the said Squares not being selected by a vote of 
the people as the site for the Public Buildings for said City. 

Section I. Be IT Enacted by the Senate and House of Represent- 
atives of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, in General Assembly met, 
and it is hereby enacted by the authority of the same : That Theodore 
CuYLER, John Rice, Samuel C. Perkins, John Price Wetherill, 
Lewis C. Cassidy, Henry M. Phillips, William L. Stokes, Wil- 
liam Devine, the Mayor of the City of Philadelphia, and the 
Presidents of Select and Common Councils, for the time being, 
are constituted Commissioners for the erection of the Public Buildings 
required to accommodate the Courts, and for all Municipal purposes, in 
the City of Philadelphia, who shall organize within thirty davs, procure 
such plans for the said buildings adapted to either of said sites hereinafter 
named, as in their judgment may be needful ; appoint of their own num- 
ber, a President, and from other than their own number, a Secretary, 
Treasurer, Solicitor, a competent Architect and assistants, and other 
employees ; fix the compensation of each person employed by them, and 



do all other acts necessary in their judgment to carry out the intent of 
this act in relation to said Public Buildings ; fill any vacancies which may 
happen by death, resignation, or otherwise ; and if in the judgment of said 
Commission, they shall deem it advisable to increase their number, they 
may, by a vote of a majority of their whole number, increase said Com- 
mission from time to time to any number not exceeding thirteen. The 
said Commissioners are hereby authorized and directed to locate said 
buildings on either Washington Square or Penn Square, as may be de- 
termined by a vote of the legally qualified voters of the City of Phila- 
delphia, at the next general election in October, one thousand eight 
hundred and seventy, and the Sheriff shall issue his proclamation, and 
the City Commissioners and other proper officers of said City shall pro- 
vide all things that may be needful to enable the voters to decide by 
ballot their choice of a site for said Public Buildings, and the Return 
Clerks shall certify to the Prothonotary the result of said election in the 
usual form required for other elections. And as soon as said choice is 
determined by a vote of the people, as provided in this act, the said Com- 
missioners shall, within thirty days thereafter, advertise for proposals, 
and make all needful contracts for the construction of said buildings, as 
soon thereafter as may be found practicable, which contracts shall be 
valid and binding in law upon the City, and upon the Contractors, when 
approved by a majority of the said Board of Commissioners ; and the 
said Commissioners shall make requisition on the Councils of said City, 
prior to the first day of December in each year, for the amount of money 
required by them for the purposes of the Commission for the succeeding 
year, and said Councils shall levy a special tax, sufficient to raise the 
amount so required : Provided^ That said Councils may at any time make 
appropriations out of the annual tax in aid of the purposes of this act. 
And provided further^ That the amount to be expended by said Commis- 
sioners shall be strictly limited to the sum required to satisfy their con- 
tracts for the erection of said buildings, and for the proper and complete 
furnishing thereof; and as soon as any part of said buildings may be com- 
pleted and furnished ready for occupancy, they shall be occupied by the 
Courts, or such branch of the Municipal Government as they are in- 



7 

tended for by said Commissioners ; and upon the completion of a suffi- 
cient portion of said buildings to accommodate the Courts and Municipal 
Offices, the buildings now occupied by them respectively shall be vacated 
and removed, and upon the entire completion of the new buildings, all 
the present buildings on Independence Square, except Independence 
Hall, shall be removed, and the ground placed in good condition by said 
Commission as part of their duty under this act, the expense of which 
shall be paid out of their general fund provided by this act, and there- 
upon the said Independence Square shall be and remain a public walk 
and green for ever. 

And be it further provided^ That in the event of Washington Square 
being selected by a majority of votes as the location for the said Public 
Buildings, then and in that event, the Councils of the City of Philadel- 
phia are hereby authorized, empowered, and required to set apart tor and 
convey by proper deeds or grants of conveyance, or bv proper assurances 
of the right to occupy said squares, which the Mayor of Philadelphia 
shall duly sign and execute under the seal of said City, the four squares 
of ground, known as Penn Squares, located at the intersection of Broad 
and Market Streets, in the City of Philadelphia, as laid down on the 
present map of said City, one to each ot the following institutions : the 
Academy of Fine Arts, the Academy of Natural Sciences, the Franklin 
Institute, and the Philadelphia Library, for the purpose of allowing them 
to erect thereon ornamental and suitable buildings for their respective 
institutions. The location of such buildings and the plans thereof to be 
approved by the Commissioners appointed under this act, and their suc- 
cessors in office, together with the time of erection, and all other matters 
appertaining thereto : Provided, hoivever. That all expenses connected 
with said conveyances, plans, and other information requisite for the said 
Commission to have, shall be paid by the institutions respectively. In 
the event of the ultimate selection of Penn Squares as the site for said 
Public Buildings, the said Commission shall have authority and thev are 
hereby empowered to vacate so much of Market and Broad Streets 
as they may deem needful : Provided, hoivever. That the streets passing 
around said buildings shall not be ut less width than one hundred feet. 



It shall be the duty of the Mayor, the City Controller, City Commis- 
sioners, and City Treasurer, and of all other officers of the City, and 
also the duty of the Councils of the City of Philadelphia, to do and per- 
form all such acts, in aid and promotion of the intent and purpose of this 
Act of Assembly, as said Commission may from time to time require. 
All laws and parts of laws restricting the uses and purposes of said 
Squares, or any of them, that may be in conflict with the intention and 
purpose of this act, be and the same are hereby repealed. 

B. B. STRANG, 

speaker of the House of Representati'ves. 

CHARLES H. STINSON, 

speaker of the Senate. 

Approved the fifth day of August, Anno Domini one thousand eight 
hundred and seventy. 

JOHN W. GEARY. 




f . OuUtuntt. 



Philadelphia. 



The corner stone was laid July 4, 1874, by Alfred R. 
Potter, Esq., R. W. Grand Master of Masons of Pennsyl- 
vania, in compliance with a request made by a Committee of 
the Commissioners, appointed in pursuance of a resolution 
unanimously adopted June 2, 1874. At this time the larger 
portion of the excavations had been completed and the 
foundations were in a good state of forwardness. 

The Hon. William S. Stokley, Mayor of the City and 
ex officio a member of the Public Building Commission, acted 
as President of the day. 

The R. W. Grand Master was assisted by the elected and 
appointed Grand Officers of the " R. W. Grand Lodge of 
F. & A. M. of Pennsylvania and Masonic Jurisdiction 
thereunto belonging," and attended by a large number of the 
brethren. 

The corner stone was laid in the northeast angle of the 
tower foundations, and was of a block of fine white marble, 
weighing about eight tons, from the quarries at Lee, Massa- 
chusetts, which have furnished the material for the facing of 
the entire superstructure above the basement. Upon the 
upper side of the stone a cavity was made in which was placed 
an hermetically sealed copper box, in which were deposited 
coins, documents, newspapers of the day, &c., &c. 

One face of the stone is exposed to view from the interior 



lO 



space in the centre of the tower foundation, and upon this 
face is cut the following inscription : — 



CORNER STONE 

OF THE 

PUBLIC BUILDINGS OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA, 

Laid July 4, 1874, 

In the presence of the Mayor of the City, the Select and Common Councils, Heads, of Departments, and other 
distinguished Civil, Military, and Naval Officials, and a large concourse of citizens. 

By ALFRED R. POTTER, Esq., 

R. W. Grand Master of Masons of Pennsylvania and Masonic Jurisdiction thereunto belonging, assisted by 

his Grand Officers, and according to the ancient ceremonies of the craft. 

Orator— BE3VJAMIBI HARRIS BREWSTER. 

President of the United States. Governor of Pennsylvania. Mayor of Philadelphia. 

ULYSSES S. GRANT. JOHN F. HARTRANFT. WILLIAM S. STOKLEY. 

Architect— JOHN McARTHUR, Jb. Superintendent— WILLIAM C. McPHERSON. 

^ammissiomxs for It-c HSration of lf)E ^uilk l^uilhin^s. 

Act of Assembly, August 5, 1870. 

President— SAMUEL C. PERKINS. 

Thos. J. Barger, Lewis C. Cassidy, Thomas E. Gaskill, Hiram Miller, 

William Brice, Mahlon H. Dickinson, A. Wilson Henszey, Richard Peltz, 

Samuel W. Cattell, Robert W. Downing, John L. Hill, Wm. S. Stokley. 

Secretary — Francis De Haes Janvier. Treasurer — Peter A. B. Widener. 

Solicitor — Charles H. T. Collis. 



Upon the conclusion of the Masonic ceremonies the orator 
of the day, Hon. Benjamin Harris Brewster, was intro- 
duced by Hon. William S. Stokley, Mayor of the City. 



T 



HON. BENJAMIN HARRIS BREWSTER, 



LAYING OF THE CORNER STONE. 



Mr. President and Gentlemen: These solemn ceremonies having 
been performed, it is now my duty to say some tew words, explaining 
the history and purpose of this great public work. One hundred and 
eighty years ago, when this city and this province were a wilderness, 
William Penn, then the proprietor, dedicated this very spot of ground as 
the suitable site for the public buildings of his projected city. That 
such was his act, and such his purpose, has been judicially established 
as a legal and historic fact ; and now we perform the conditions of the 
grant, and honestly apply the gift to the object of the trust, obeying the 
intentions of our provident benefactor. 

For many years this city has been unprovided with buildings suitable 
for the convenient performance of the usual and necessary public 
business. 

Before the consolidation of the city, as created by Penn, we were 
surrounded with outlying incorporated municipalities. Then the busi- 
ness ot each and all was transacted with reasonable con\ enience in the 
old municipal buildings, and in the halls that had been erected in the dis- 
tricts and townships of the county ; but even then the accommodations 
were wanting for the growing necessities of our courts. Year after 
year the officers of the county (then a separate and distinct corporation, 
with its own organization and officials) were driven to adopt expedients 
to supply the courts with convenient apartments. At one time the 
Supreme Court was held in the Hall of Independence ; at another time 
the Supreme Court, Nisi Prius, was placed in the chapter room of the 
old abandoned Masonic Hall, Chestnut Street, above Seventh. During 
those days the necessities for such buildings for general public uses were 
few. Since then new and great departments have grown out ot what 
were subordinate clerkships ot public cmpkninent. 



12 

Day by day the want of proper apartments pressed upon the courts 
and interfered with the administration of justice. Day by day the same 
want crowded the officials of the city and the people who had business 
with them. There was hardly a county of any importance in the State 
that had not buildings larger in proportion to their wants, by a hundred 
fold, than our crowded and narrow rooms. Different plans had been 
projected and suggested for supplying this want. From many causes 
they all failed. Sometimes the fear of the cost hindered the prosecution 
of the purpose. Then the selection of the locality was in the way, and 
then the choice of the means by which it was to be done. At last the 
Legislature of the Commonwealth finally resolved, and by an Act, 
approved 5th of August, 1870, provided "for the erection of all of the 
public buildings required to accommodate the courts, and for all muni- 
cipal purposes in the city of Philadelphia." That Act created the Com- 
mission now in charge of this duty, and gave the people of the city the 
privilege of indicating, by popular vote, whether the buildings should be 
at Washington Square or at Penn Square, where we now are, and where 
we have this day witnessed the laying of the corner stone of one of the 
most majestic and useful structures that adorn, or have adorned, any city 
of the world. May it last for ever ! 

After the passage of this Act a heated and almost angry opposition 
was excited ; a series of litigations ensued ; application was made to 
the Legislature ; resistance was attempted in the City Councils, and the 
elements of the most vehement partisan prejudices were used to frustrate 
the law or secure its repeal. Then some of us regretted this opposition. 
Some thought it too personal, too violent. But since it has passed away 
all are reconciled, and believe that it was for the best. Such an event, 
conflicting as it did with so many convictions and interests, must excite 
opposition, and those who resisted had a right to be heard, and fully heard, 
before all of the tribunals, popular, legislative, and judicial. These con- 
tentions delayed the action of the Commission for any practical result for 
full a year. After that, all those obstructions being removed, it proceeded 
to act as the law commanded, as the people had directed, and as the courts 
had adjudged. What we now do is the product of that action. On the 
7th of January, 1 871, the work was first begun, by the removal of the 
iron railings which enclosed the four squares or plots of ground, into 
which the city had converted the whole, in the year 1828, for the pur- 
pose of running Market and Broad Streets through the original plot. 
Before that the place had been left as it was originally set apart — one 
entire square — and in that state had been occupied, at different times, 
and in different parts of it, by a Friends' meeting-house, and by the first 



13 

water-works established and used for conveying Schuylkill water to the 
old city. I remember the small, neat building that graced the centre. 
I think it was designed by Latrobe, the famous architect, who adorned 
our city with some of its most beautiful structures, and who left the 
Capitol buildings at Washington as the highest achievement of his 
genius. The very columns that embellished its front now support the 
pediment of the Unitarian Church, at the corner of Tenth and Locust 
Streets. The bisection of this plot, by these highways, was for the 
purpose of temporary public convenience, and to accommodate the rail- 
ways that were then for the first time introduced, and whose direct 
access to the city proper was considered to be of great importance to its 
trade and languishing commerce. With the growth of population and 
the changes of events that has passed away ; indeed the necessity now is 
to remove the railways from the thickly-peopled parts, where they are a 
dangerous obstruction to trade and the ordinary pursuits of the thousands 
who throng their crowded ways. It was at most but a temporary occu- 
pation and license, revocable at will, if it were not an unauthorized and 
illegal intrusion. 

On the loth of August, 1871, the ground was broken by John Rice, 
Esq., then President of the Board of Commissioners, and the first stone 
of the foundation was laid at 2 o'clock, p. M., on the 12th day of August, 
A. D. 1872. The closing of the streets and placing the building in the 
centre of the plot was the subject of much discussion in the Commission 
itself. By some it was wished that the streets should remain open, and the 
four plots should each contain a structure ; but the final resolution of the 
Commission was, and is, to place it and keep it where it was intended 
by Penn that it should be put — -in the centre of the whole ten acres. 
And with this conclusion, I believe, most men now concur. It is the 
only place where a building of suitable dignitv can stand to display its 
parts in all the beauty of their architectural effect. It will adorn, and 
not blemish, the highways at whose intersection it is placed, and it will 
give an air of majesty and grandeur to these long and broad avenues. 
It is not put in a corner, hidden from view, but it stands out in bold and 
high relief, commanding admiration. It is placed, as other and similar 
great structures are, as the centre of human concourse from which all 
things radiate and to which all things converge. It is surrounded by a 
grand avenue, 135 feet wide on the southern and eastern and western 
fronts, and 205 feet wide on the northern front. Neither the view nor 
way is hindered by it. The view is improved, the effect being magni- 
fied — and the way is widened into open spaces of unusual dimensions, 
but of proportions that harmonize with the magnitude of the building, 



14 

and answer the convenience ot the multitude that will be drawn here to 
transact public and private affairs. Had the buildings been divided and 
placed on the four squares, the cost would have been increased and their 
beautv lost, while the inconvenience to the public would have been 
great, and the expense of maintaining them with light and heat and 
water, and the other necessaries, would have been largely multiplied. 
1 he highways would have been smaller and narrower and less conve- 
nient. In this, as in all that has been done, these Commissioners have 
wisely followed, not forced, the general public judgment. Mr. John 
McArthur, Jr., of this city, who had before this been engaged in pre- 
paring all the previous plans, which had been the subject of public con- 
sideration for many years, was chosen the architect, and his plan adopted. 
That has been submitted to the public, and it, too, has been justly 
applauded and approved. I shall not here undertake to describe it by a 
multitude of words, which can only degenerate into mere rhetorical 
expletives, and would therefore be unsuitable as well as vulgar. This 
much, however, I must speak. It is suited for its purpose, it is of suffi- 
cient size to answer future wants. It is admirable in its ornaments, 
while the whole effect is one of massive dignity, worthy of us and our 
posterity. 

I will here give the dimensions and a few of the details of this re- 
markable structure. It is 470 feet from east to west, and 486J feet 
from north to south, covering an area, exclusive of the court-yard, of 
nearly four and a half acres. It is probably larger than any single 
building on this continent. The superstructure consists of a basement 
story, 18 feet in height, a principal story, of 36 feet, and an upper story, 
of 31 feet, surmounted by another of 15 feet. The small rooms open- 
ing upon the court-yard are each subdivided in height into two stories, 
for the purpose of making useful all the space. The several stories 
will be approached by four large elevators, placed at the intersections of 
the leading corridors, to make easy the intercourse of citizens with 
courts, public offices, and departments of city government. In addition 
to these means of access there will be a grand staircase in each of the 
four corners of the building, and one in each of the centre pavilions on 
the north, south, west and east fronts. The entire structure will con- 
tain five hundred and twenty rooms, of suitable dimensions, and fitted 
with every possible convenience, including heat, light, and ventilation, 
and the whole is to be absolutely fireproof and indestructible. All of 
the departments now existing will be abundantly supplied, and a vast 
amount of surplus room will be left for judicial and other city archives, 
as well as afford room for all of our growing wants. This is as it ought 



15 

to be. We provide for the present urgent wants, and protect the people 
hereafter from those inconveniences under which we now suffer, and 
which expose our records to ruin and decay, while they seriously obstruct 
and hurt all branches of business and public duty. It is computed that 
the entire cost of this work will be near ten millions of dollars, and that 
it will be completed in ten years from the day when the first spadeful of 
earth was removed. 

To judge of its massive size, I will give you an account of what 
materials have been consumed in constructing the foundation and the 
parts of the superstructure you now see before you : 74,000 cubic feet 
of cement concrete, 636,400 cubic feet of foundation stone, 8,000,000 
bricks, 70,000 cubic feet of dressed granite, and 366 tons of iron, includ- 
ing floor beams. 

The excavation for the cellars and foundations required the removal 
of 141,500 cubic yards of earth. A large quantity of the marble for 
the superstructure has been prepared, and the corner stone is the first 
block that has yet been set in the building. Here I will end my details. 
To be more minute would be tedious and prolix ; but this much should 
be given to properly advise the public. 

Let me state with accuracy to what purposes the building will be 
devoted, and who will occupy it the day it is ready for public use, that 
you may see and know what are our wants. 

The Mayor will requre for the use of his office and of the police at 
least twelve commodious rooms. 

The City Council Chambers and their officers will need . ■ 'S 

The City Treasurer, ......... 3 

The City Controller, ......... 5 

Law Department, ......... 9 

Water Department, . . . . . . . . .7 

Highways, Bridges, and Sewers, ....... 4. 

Survey Department, ......... 4 

Markets and City Property, ....... 2. 

Building Inspectors, ......... 2 

Boiler Inspectors, ......... 2 

Health Office, 6 

Fire Department, ......... 4 

Receiver of Taxes, ......... 5 

Police and Fire-alarm Telegraph, ...... z 

Guardians of the Poor, ........ 3 

Port Wardens, . . . . . . . . . .2 

City Commissioners, ......... 6 

Coroner, ........... 4 

Girard Estates, .......... 2 



i6 

Board of Education, . . . . . . . . .6 

Gas Office, ........... i 

Park Commissioners, . . . . . . . . . i 

Board of Revision, ......... 4 

Collector of Delinquent Taxes, ....... 3 

Courts, 13 rooms, with accommodations for the Prothonotaries 

and Clerks, for the Law Library, witness and jury rooms, and 

District Attorney. 

Recorder of Deeds, ......... 4 

Register of Wills, ......... 4 

Sheriff, ........... 4 

At this time the city rents apartments for the Recorder of Deeds, in 
the Philadelphia National Bank ; for the City Controller and Treasurer, 
in the Girard Bank ; the Law Buildings on Fifth Street, for the Law 
Department ; of the American Philosophical Society, for the Water 
Department ; and for the Survey Department, in No. 224 South Fifth 
Street ; in No. 723 Arch Street, for the Tax Office and Board of 
Revision -, and the southwest corner of Fifth and Walnut Streets, for the 
Department of Markets and City Property ; and for these insecure and 
unsuited places it pays a rent of $41,300. These I mention that it 
may be known and seen how scattered, costly, and unfit are our present 
accommodations for public purposes. 

It will now be proper for me to speak a few words of the extent of 
our City of Homes, as it has been called, of its large accommodations for 
its people, of its great public improvements for public necessities and 
private comfort. This I will do in a cursory way, as the occasion and 
the time will not admit of precision and detail ; but it should be done, 
to show how fit this structure in all its magnitude of dimensions is for the 
community it is intended to supply, and how it harmonizes in all thmgs 
with that which we have around us and about us in daily use, and how 
essential it is to construct it as it is designed, if we are to have a provi- 
dent regard for the manifest wants of the future. I have seen and lived 
in almost all of the capitals of Europe, and I have read of all of the 
great cities of the world, but I have never seen or read of such a city 
as this is. There is no town in the world, of its dimensions or popula- 
tion, and there never has been one, that possesses such accommodations 
for its people. 

Artisans, and even laborers, live with us as they never lived before. 
Men whose daily earnings in ether cities will hardly sustain Hfe and pro- 
vide a shelter for themselves and their families, except in the most rude, 
coarse, scanty, and crowded way, are here the occupants of single and 



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y, jBari^'^.s^JS 



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V 







CARYATIDES OF DORMERS OF CORNER PAVILIONS. 



t*hiia<itlph^ 



17 

comfortable dwellings, and thousands of them the owners of their own 
houses. 

The effect of this upon the mental and moral condition of the citizens 
is evident, even to transient visitors. We have no such class here as 
the poor workingman ; our city is filled with workmen, independent, 
prosperous freemen, who bring up families of boys with habits of thrift 
and industry, to go out into life prepared and resolved to earn homes, 
because they have enjoyed them in their happy childhood, and with good 
girls, who are certain of provision for life with a comfortable house for 
their families, because they are trained to keep those homes with tidiness 
and economy, and because they are raised with a race of men who honor 
and love their families, and find their only sense of content in the culti- 
vation of the domestic affections. This is true, every word of it true, 
of Philadelphia and its workmen. At the beginning of the year 1873 
we had 134,740 buildings of all kinds. Of these 124,302 were dwell- 
ing-houses, occupied by families. They exceed the following cities by 
the following numbers : 

New York, by over ........ 60,000 

Brooklyn, by over ........ 78,000 

St. Louis, by over . . . . . . . . 84,000 

Baltimore, by over ........ 83,000 

Chicago, by over ........ 79,000 

Boston, by over ......... 94,000 

Cincinnati, by over ........ 99,000 

This city has a population of near 800,000, and they live in an area 
of 1 29 J square miles. It has lOOO miles of streets and roads opened 
for use, and over 500 miles of these are paved. It is lighted by near ten 
thousand gas lamps. The earth beneath conceals and is penetrated by 
134 miles of sewers, over 600 miles of gas mains and 546 miles of water 
pipes. We have over 212 miles of city railways, and near 1794 city 
railroad cars passing over these railroads daily, 3025 steam boilers, over 
400 public schools, with suitable buildings, and over 1600 school 
teachers, and over 80,000 pupils. We have over 34,000 bath-rooms, 
most of which are supplied with hot water, and for the use of the water, 
at low rates, our citizens pay more than a million of dollars annually. 
We have over 400 places of public worship, and accommodations in 
them for 300,000 persons. 

We have near 9000 manufactories, having a capital of $185,000,000, 
employing 145,000 hands, the annual product of whose labor is over 
$384,000,000. We exported in 1873, '" value, over $34,000,000, and 
we imported in value over $26,000,000. The amount paid for duties 

2 



i8 

in gold was near eight millions and a half. The real estate, as assessed 
for taxation, was over $518,000,000, and we collected near $9,000,000 
for taxes. Our funded debt, including the gas loan, in January, 1873, 
was $51,697,147 67, and our annual outlay in 1873, inclusive of in- 
terest on our debt, was $7,726,123. We have parks and public squares, 
and Fairmount Park, which is one of them, contains 2991 acres, and 
is one of the largest parks in the world, and was enjoyed in 1873 by 
near 3,000,000 of people. 

From this we can understand for whom we are now building, and why 
the outlay proposed is provident and necessary. We can also see in a 
partial way where our money has gone, but we can see with sufficient 
fullness how providently and judiciously most of it has been expended, 
when we behold this list of stupendous improvements, millions of which 
lie beneath the surface of the earth, and millions of which we drive 
over and walk over, unheeding the cost of the conveniences and com- 
forts we are daily using in the paved, curbed, watered, drained, and 
lighted highways, on which front, for over 2000 miles, 124,302 neat 
and comfortable homes. I said, we can see in a partial way where our 
money has gone, because near twelve millions of the debt was incurred 
for the expenses of the civil war. But even that we can see and value, 
when, as the fruit of it, we can behold around us not only our own 
comfortable and peaceful homes, but we feel by its outlay, made with 
generous prodigality in such a cause, that we have saved a country and 
a free home for ourselves and for others in this land, and in foreign 
lands ; and we feel that we have also shown that a republic can 
"maintain a perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, 
provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and 
secure the blessings of liberty for themselves and their posterity." 

Of all the cities in this nation, Philadelphia is pre-eminently Ameri- 
can. Philadelphia's characteristics and customs, the habits and pecu- 
liarities of the people, are essentially American. The vast body of its 
population is chiefly the product of its own people, who were here 
almost from the beginning. The descendants of the men who were 
here at its foundation, and were here at the outbreak of the Revolution, 
are the men who now compose the body of its citizens, who do its 
work, carry on its trades, make its ordinances, control its offices, own 
its property, and fill the stations of public usefulness and dignity. We 
are not governed by strangers, and have never been willing to submit 
to such rule. We have a manly local pride of citizenship; other sea- 
board cities are provincial, or filled with strangers from other parts of 



the nation and from other countries ; and the Western cities are, like 
New York, the homes of new men from old places. 

If a foreigner were to ask me, where will I find a real American, 
untouched in his character and nationality by the ever-drifting tide of 
emigration, domestic and foreign, and with no taint of provincial nar- 
rowness, I would say, go to Philadelphia, and there you will find just 
such men and women by the hundreds of thousands. There you will 
find a provident, steadfast race, the sons for over six generations of prov- 
ident, steadfast ancestors; real Americans, bone of their bone, flesh of 
their flesh. Early in our career we commanded the foreign and domes- 
tic commerce of the colonies, and till 1820 this city was the commer- 
cial metropolis of the country. For a time that ascendency passed 
away, and New York, by her internal improvements, acquired the trade 
we had lost. While we thus ruled, we ruled grandly, and we have 
never forgotten our dignity. The sentiment that then prevailed with 
our people still prevails. Then they embellished our city with works 
of architecture, equalled nowhere in the Union in beauty and fit- 
ness. We then possessed nearly all of the public buildings and public 
works of the land, and they were objects of admiration. Strangers 
came from a distance to see them and enjoy them. The Fairmount 
Water Works, the old Bank of Pennsylvania, the old Bank of the 
United States (now the Girard Bank, both the works of Latrobe), the 
new Bank of the United States (now the Custom House), and the Ex- 
change and the Mint of the United States, and the Naval Asylum (the 
works of Strickland), the old Philadelphia Bank, and such like, were 
scattered over our city, then small in its dimensions and population. 
Even in the earlier days we were not unmindful of what was due to 
good taste in the erection of our public structures, as well as in our 
beautiful private mansions that then stood surrounded with groves of 
trees adorning the town and country homes of our cultivated and wealthy 
colonial gentry and merchants. Let any one but step into Christ's 
Church, even as it is now changed by the renovating hand of modern 
improvement, and he will there see the remains of a harmony, sim- 
plicity, and fitness of adornment that indicates a high standard of just 
taste. And there is also the State House, in Chestnut Street. Enter 
the great hall that leads to the Hall of Independence and the tower, 
on which is built the steeple, and there will be seen a passage of modest 
dignity, and a broad, well-constructed stairway, showing that even in 
those days, over one hundred and twenty years ago, when it was built, 
surrounded with the forest trees, and out of town — in those simple days 
our ancestors had provided, as we provide, for the future and for public 



20 

purposes, with a liberal hand, regarding taste as well as utility. Let us 
not forget the Pennsylvania Hospital in Pine Street, with its spacious 
grounds and its lofty, stately main building, at this day an object of ad- 
miration for its size and its proportions, so suited for its purpose, and so 
simple in its quiet, harmonious beauty. 

All this we still have ; and, further, we have the Girard College, 
with other grand and elegant structures that are the work of our own 
days. I will not speak of them in detail ; time will not permit me to 
describe the rows of new residences that adorn our streets, or the costlv 
and stately churches that are scattered in every quarter of the town. 
You have the great Masonic Temple and three beautiful churches that 
cluster round this very spot. I can remember well when but two 
steeples rose above our town ; now, as you gaze from the summits in 
the Park, the city lies before you with a number of lofty domes and sky- 
piercing spires. These are the work of private enterprise and bounty. 
We must not omit to remember the great gift the city has this day be- 
stowed upon her people. To-day the Girard Avenue Bridge was de- 
livered over to the authorities, and is now possessed by all of us. It is 
a work of wonderful merit, and is well worth the millions spent on it. 
It is an avenue worthy of any of the greatest cities of the world. It 
contributes to our convenience and prosperity, while it bears witness to 
our pride and liberality of feeling in all that concerns the common and 
public good. In our growth we live up to the example of our ances- 
tors, and have resolved now that for our present necessities, and accord- 
ing to the abundance of our means, we will adorn our city as it was 
adorned of old, with a structure that will fully answer its end, and com- 
mand the admiration of all men. 

Such is my love for and faith in this city, that I feel possessed with 
a conviction, which might even be called a superstition, that it will 
again be, as it once was, the real metropolis of the nation. The capital 
and the public offices of the Union will never return ; the foreign trade 
may cluster at New York as it does in Liverpool ; but Philadelphia will 
be again, as she first was, the real centre of finance, of commerce, and 
wealth. She is at the head of the mechanic arts and of manufacturing, 
and she has ever led in refinement, in science, and in jurisprudence. 
The material supremacies which left her will return, and those graces 
and glories which she has ever had will never leave her. Here they made 
their home, where Penn, the greatest of all the founders of free common- 
wealths, demonstrated that liberty, the largest liberty, was compatible 
with obedience to law, and a colony, established to maintain the firmest of 
religious convictions by the strictest of sects, could protect all other beliefs. 



21 

This wisdom he transmitted to our people, and as a body they possess 
it to this hour as a spirit or living public soul, and it is that which has 
made us just what we are, and for which we are and have been con- 
spicuous in all of our public history. In the Revolution, when we had 
most to lose, we were first in action, and faithful to the end, enduring 
all things, hoping all things, believing all things for the love of that 
Christian liberty which was a part of our blessed faith. In those sad 
days, here came, as to a common centre, all of the wise and brave who 
guided and led in that contest. Here the Continental Congress sat, 
here the Declaration of Independence was written, executed and pro- 
claimed. After the Revolution, here George Washington presided over 
the deliberation of the Constitutional Convention ; and here, too, he 
administered to the end of his official life the Government he had helped 
to form for the country he had saved. How tliickly the memories of 
these events, our great events of the past, press on me ! How the 
names of the wise and good and mighty rise up before me, and tempt 
me to enlarge upon the iiistory of the grand things done, and of the men 
who did them. I mean those who belonged to us, who were Philadel- 
phians, but whose fame is so large that men remember them only as 
belono-ing to mankind. We have had Penn and Franklin and Ritten- 
house and Rush and Godfrey and Bartram, whose names posterity will 
not willingly let die. Penn and Franklin are names that never will be 
forgotten; they will pass down through time linked with Solon and 
Lycurgus, Pythagoras and Archimedes and Socrates and Plato and 
Aristotle, the crowned monarchs of human thought. Hut I must here 
pause. I have well-nigh done all that was required of me. I must not 
wander oft, tempted by these proud thoughts of our proud citizenship. 
I never approach a great building but with a sense of awe. Mechani- 
cally I lift my hat, as if I stood in the august presence of something 
grand and good. I can understand why men ha\ e imputed spiritual 
gifts to the masters of this the greatest of all arts. 

For in it all science and all art unite to produce sublime and almost 
supernatural results. Solomon, the wisest of men, thus illustrated the 
highest reaches of his superhuman genius, and the greatest achievement 
of the chosen people was the vast temple bulk by that monarch and 
dedicated to the service of Jehovah. Go where vou will on the face of 
the earth, you will there find these grand works of nations now dead 
and perished from the memory of men. Those who made them had 
immortal souls ; but for this life they were mortal, and are no more re- 
membered of men ; and yer thus their history is recorded and remem- 
bered in monuments that were the works of their minds and hands — 



22 

monuments that stand like great books written in the very rocks they 
are built upon. Where no such monuments are to be found the people 
had no mental or moral natures above the faculties of brutes. Wher- 
ever a nation had a conscience and a mind, there it recorded the evidence 
of its being in these the highest products of human thought, human 
knowledge, and human will. 

It has been well said that architecture rests on two ideas — the natural, 
or the idea of order ; the supernatural, or that of the infinite. In these 
various monuments of bygone ages these thoughts are displayed accord- 
ing to the genius of the people. 

" In Greek art order directs and guides the natural and rational idea. 
The strong column elegantly grouped, bearing at its ease a light pedi- 
ment — the weak rests on the strong ; this is logical and human. Gothic 
art is supernatural — superhuman — it is born of the belief of the miracu- 
lous and poetic. The geometry of beauty bursts brilliantly forth in the 
type of the Gothic architecture in the Cathedral of Cologne. To whom 
belonged the science of numbers, this divine mathematics ? To no 
mortal man did it belong, but to the Church of God. Under the shadow 
of the Church in chapters and in monasteries, the secret was transmitted, 
together with instructions in the mysteries of Christianity. The Church 
alone could accomplish these miracles of architecture. She could often 
summon a whole people to complete a monument. A hundred thousand 
men labored at once on that of Strasbourg, and such was their zeal that 
they did not suffer night to interrupt their work, but continued it by 
torchlight. Often, too, the Church would lavish centuries on the slow 
accomplishment of a perfect work." 

The original and brilliant historian and thinker, whose words I have 
just repeated, citing them as the evidence of an observer, philosopher, 
and critic, conveys to us, in his clever sentences, those truths which 
illustrate and account for some of the most marvellous products of this 
mighty art. He reminds us that when pious zeal inspires, it passes 
beyond the mere love of order and fitness, and soars into the very em- 
pyrean of the miraculous ar.d poetic. What a grand thing is it thus to 
perpetuate such sublimities of thought and feeling in monuments as 
everlasting as the hills, and as spiritual in their influence on the human 
soul ! This is what we are doing. We are erecting a structure that will 
in ages to come speak for us as with "the tongues of men and angels." 
This work which we now do, as it were, in the morning hour of our being, 
will, probably, like the broken arch of London bridge fancied by Lord 
Macaulay, in some far off future day be all that remains to tell the story of 
our civilization, and to testify to the dignity and public spirit of our people. 



23 

What we thus give we must give with free spirit, not grudgingly, for as 
we are of great and good beginnings, and have been an earnest and noble 
race of men, so should we make this our monument tell the world and 
posterity how provident we are ; how, scorning ugliness as we do vice, 
we resolve thus to speak to men as it were in words of marble, that 
in their order are logical and human, and in their form reach to the 
miraculous and poetic. 

We have done and are doing a great, great work, and it will inspire 
our posterity to live up to our standard, as we are inspired to live by the 
standard of our ancestors. They loved their town with a gentle fond- 
ness that is testified by every act of their useful and remarkable public 
lives, and they transmitted to us, their sons, the same soft sense of affec- 
tion. We, too, can say, as Franklin said when writing of his home — 
dear, dear Philadelphia. Do we not say it in enduring words with this day's 
work, and when we leave behind us this noble building to say it for us ? 




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SUMMARY 

OF LEGISLATIVE AND MUNICIPAL ACTION RELATING 

TO THE WORK, WITH A BRIEF HISTORY OF 

EVENTS PERTAINING THERETO. 



The earliest movements relating to the present undertaking consisted 
in the passage of an ordinance by the City Councils, approved Decem- 
ber 31, 1868, providing for the erection of Municipal Buildings on 
Independence Square, and designating Commissioners to carry the same 
into effect. 

The first meeting of the Commission was held in the Select Council 
Chamber, January 7, 1869. 

Architectural designs were advertised for on the 5th of April, 1869, 
and on the 1st of September following, plans and drawings had been 
received from seventeen different architects. 

At a meeting of the Commissioners, held September 27, 1869, the 
first premium was awarded to John Mc Arthur, Jr., architect, of this 
city, and on the 27th of the following December, Mr. McArthur was 
appointed Architect of the work, and proposals for labor and materials 
were ordered to be advertised tor. 

Contracts were awarded on the i6th of January, 1870, and arrange- 
ments made for commencing the work. 

A strong opposition to Independence Square, as the site for the 
Municipal Buildings, had existed in the public mind from the earliest 
movements in that direction, and as the Commission proceeded with 
their preparations for carrying out the provisions of the ordinance under 
which they were acting, the opposition became daily more intensified. 



26 

until it culminated in the passage of a law by the Legislature of the 
State, approved August 5, 1870, providing for the erection of the 
Public Buildings either on Washington Square or on Penn Square, as 
the legally qualified voters of the City of Philadelphia might determine, 
at the general election to be held in October, 1870. The election 
resulted, out of a total of 84,450 votes, in a majority of above 18,800 
in favor ot the site on Penn Square, vi'hich finally disposed of the ques- 
tion. The passage of this law rendered the municipal ordinance of no 
effect, and relieved the Commissioners acting under it of further duties. 

The first meeting of the Commissioners, under the new law, was 
held on the 27th of August, 1870, at the Mayor's Office. 

There were present Hon. Daniel M. Fox, Mayor of the City ; 
Samuel W. Cattell, President of Select Council ; Louis Wagner, 
President of Common Council ; with all the Commissioners designated 
by name in the Act, except William Devine, deceased, and William L. 
Stokes, not known ; and Messrs. Henry W. Gray and William S. 
Stokley were elected in their places. A temporary organization was 
effected by the election of Mayor Fox as President, and Eugene G. 
Woodward, Secretary. 

September 15, 1870, John McArthur, Jr., was elected Architect of 
the work. 

October 4, 1870, a permanent organization was made, and John Rice 
was elected President, Charles R. Roberts, Secretary, and Charles H. 
T. CoUis, Solicitor. 

November i, 1870, the Commissioners decided to have one building, 
and to locate it on the intersection of Broad and Market Streets, and on 
the third day of the same month proposals for labor and materials were 
advertised for. 

The removal of the iron railings which enclosed the four squares on 
Broad and Market Streets was commenced on the 27th of January, 
1 87 1, and this may properly be considered as the date of the actual 
beginning of the work. 

At a meeting of the Commissioners, held June 19, 1871, a resolution 



27 

was passed to the effect, " That any and all action heretofore had by 
the Board, designating the intersection of Market and Broad Streets as 
the site for the Public Buildings, is hereby repealed, annulled, and made 
void ;" and the Architect was directed to prepare plans for the buildings 
on the four squares, fronting on Market and Broad Streets. 

The Architect submitted to the Board, August 7, 1871, designs for 
the four separate buildings, as directed, whereupon the same were 
adopted ; and on the r6th of the same month the ground was formally 
broken by John Rice, Esq., then President of the Commission. 

Impediments were from time to time interposed to the progress of the 
work, by application to the Courts, on various grounds, for injunctions, 
to which is to be attributed the delay which attended the early stages of 
the enterprise. 

October 12, 1871, Francis De Haes Janvier was elected Secretary, 
in place of Mr. Roberts, resigned, and John Sunderland was elected 
Superintendent. 

At a meeting of the Commissioners, held April 7, 1872, it was re- 
solved to revert to the original idea of placing the buildings on the 
intersection of Market and Broad Streets. The architectural plans 
and drawings having been heretofore prepared for the work under the 
original instructions ot the Commissioners, and the excavations answer- 
ing in part for either location, the change hom the four buildings to the 
intersection involved no delay. The first stone was laid on the 12th ot 
August, 1B72. 

On the 17th of April, 1872, Mr. Rice resigned as President of the 
Commissioners, and Samuel C. Perkins was elected in his place. 

The contract tor the granite basement was awarded November 19, 

1872, for $515,500; and work was commenced under the contract, 
March 24, 1873. The contract for the marble work of the super- 
structure was awarded on the 7th of October, 1873, ^°'' fciSOOiOOO 5 
the form of the contract in all its details was approved and adopted, 
November 26, 1873, and ordered to be executed bv the President on 
behalf of the Commissioners; it was actually executed December 18, 

1873, and as executed submitted to the Commissioners at their stated 



28 

meeting, January 6, 1874, and then formally ratified. The first block 
under this contract was set in the walls, July 3, 1874. 

November 4, 1873, William C. McPherson was elected Superintend- 
ent, and entered upon his duties November 10. 

The appropriations by Councils for the prosecution of the work, up 
to 1879, inclusive, have been as follows : — 



1872, April 6, 1872 (Ord. p. 120), 

Items I to 9 for 1870, 1871, . $18,700 00 

Items for 1872, . . . 258,750 00 

1872, Dec. 28 (Ord. p. 641), for 1873, . 769,750 00 

1873, May 12 (Ord. p. 201), for 1873 

(proceeds Water Pipe), 1,209 ^^ 



)277,450 00 



1873, Dec. 20 (Ord. p. 618), for 1874, 

1874, Oct. 26 (Ord. p. 314), warrants to amount of 

$500,000 of the $1,457,450 to be approved and 
paid from amount of general tax and provided for 
out of special tax of 1875. 

1874, Dec. 28 (Ord. p. 452), for 1875, 

1875, Dec. 31 (Ord. p. 434), for 1876, 

1876, May 13 (Ord. p. 108), warrants to amount of 

$500,000 of the appropriation to be paid out of 
general tax. 
No appropriation for 1877. 

1878, March 23 (Ord. p. 56), for 1878, 

1879, January 4 (Ord. p. 2), for 1879, 



770,959 m 
1,4575450 00 



875,750 00 
595,000 00 



600,000 00 
750,000 00 



5,326,609 88 



Of this amount there had been collected by special tax, up to Decem- 
ber 31, 1879, inclusive, $3,333,270. 



The year 1876 was the last for which a special tax was levied for the 
Public Buildings. The amounts collected in subsequent years were 
arrears from former years. 

Councils, by Ordinance of December 31, 1879, appropriated for the 
prosecution of the work in 1880, $635,000. 

Expenditures out of appropriations by Councils : — 



1872 

^873 
1874 
1875 
1876 

1877 
1878 
1879 



Expended, 



$156,026 17 
438,241 45 
1,007,725 89 
1,401,425 23 
758,683 15 
146,192 98 
643,162 72 
745,315 13 



$5,296,772 72 
Less warrant returned and cancelled, 187 52 



Amount of special warrants paid to Wil- 
liam Struthers & Sons, and collected 
by mandamus under the decision of 
the court, ..... 

Amount of special warrants paid to Wil- 
liam Struthers & Sons, up to Decem- 
ber 31, 1879, inclusive, and remaining 
uncollected at that date, . 



$265,196 26 



295,836 88 



5,296,585 20 



^561,033 14 



Total amount expended to Dec. 31, 1879, inclusive, $5,857,618 34 



3° 



SINCE THE FIRST MEETING OF THE COMMISSIONERS 

THE FOLLOWING CFIANGES HAVE TAKEN PLACE 

IN THE MEMBERSHIP OF THE BODY. 



1 87 1. Jan'y 2. Henry Huhn, ex officio as President of Common 

Council, in place of Louis Wagner. 
Oct. ig. Theodore Cuyler and Henry M. Phillips, resigned. 
Nov. 15. William Massey and Mahlon H. Dickinson, elected 

in place of Messrs. Cuyler and Phillips. 

1872. Jan'y i. William S. Stokley, ^x ojfficio as Mayor, in place of 

Daniel M. Fox. 
William E. Littleton, ex officio as President of Select 
Council, in place of Samuel W. Cattell. 

Jan'y 2. John Price Wetherill and William Massey, resigned. 

Jan'y 18. John L. Hill and R. J. C. Walker, elected in place 
of Messrs. Wetherill and Massey. 
William S. Stokley resigned his individual member- 
ship. Henry W. Gray, resigned. 
Samuel W. Cattell and Alexander M. Fox, elected 
in place of Messrs. Stokley (individually) and 
Gray. 

Feb'y 13. Alexander M. Fox declined hi; election, and Hiram 
Miller elected in his place. 

Feb'y 15. Louis Wagner, ex officio as President of Common 
Council, in place of Henry Huhn, who had re- 
signed the office. 

April 17. William Brice and Thomas J. Barger, elected to fill 
up the number of Commissioners to thirteen. 

May 14. R. J. C. Walker resigned. 

May 28. John Rice resigned, and Richard Peltz elected. 

July 12. Thomas E, Gaskill elected in place of Mr. Walker. 



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1873. J'^^'y ^- A. Wilson Henszey, i?xi9,^a(? as President of Common 

Council, in place of Louis Wagner. 

1874. Jan'y 5. Robert W. Downing, ex officio as President of Select 

Council, in place of William E. Littleton. 

1875. July 8. William W. Burnell, M.D , ex officio as President of 

Select Council, in place of Robert W. Downing. 

1876. Jan'y 3. George A. Smith, ex officio as President of Select 

Council, in place of William W. Burnell, M.D. 
Joseph L. Caven, ex officio as President of Common 
Council, in place of A. Wilson Henszey. 

1877. June 12. Lewis C. Cassidy resigned. 

Dec. 4. Isaac S. Cassin elected in place of Mr. Cassidy. 



PLACES OF MEETING OF COMMISSIONERS. 

The earlier meetings were held at the office of the Mayor. From 
October, 1870, the Commissioners met in one of the lower rooms of 
the new Court House on Independence Square, until September, 1871, 
with the exception of a few meetings held at the Architect's office, to 
examine plans, &c. In September, 1871, rooms were rented for the 
use of the Commissioners in the second story of No. 1107 Chestnut 
Street, and occupied for a month, when the Commissionjrs removed to 
rooms in the second story of No. 1103 Chestnut Street. In Novem- 
ber, 1872, the premises No. 1408 S. Penn Square, and opposite the site 
of the Buildings, were rented and used as the offices and place of meet- 
ing of the Commissioners, until November, 1875, when rooms were 
fitted up for their accommodation in the basement on the southern side 
of the Buildings themselves ; the first meeting therein was held No\ em- 
ber 2, 1875. 



32 



DESCRIPTION OF l^HE BUILDINGS. 



THE EXTERIOR. 

A tendency exists in the public mind to seek to classify every con- 
siderable architectural design under the head of some "order" or 
"style ;" but modern genius and taste deal so largely in original adapt- 
ations of classic and other forms that we often find no small difficulty 
in deciding under which, if any, of the heretofore established orders or 
styles many of the most important structures of the present day can 
properly be classed. 

The architecture of the New Public Buildings is of this character. 
It is essentially modern in its leading features, and presents a rich ex- 
ample of what is known by the generic term of the " Renaissance," 
modified and adapted to the varied and extensive requirements of a 
great American municipality. 

It is designed in the spirit of French art, while at the same time its 
adaptation of that florid and tasteful manner of building is free from 
servile imitation, either in ornamentation or in the ordonnance of its 
details. 

This immense architectural pile is located on the intersection of 
Broad and Market Streets, in the City of Philadelphia. It consists of 
a single building, under one roof, occupying, inclusive of the court-yard, 
an area of nearly 4^ acres. The horizontal dimensions of the structure 
are a square of 425 feet, with added projections for convenience and 
architectural effect, making its extreme length 470 feet from east to 
west, and 486J feet from north to south. 

The four fronts are similar in design. In the centre of each an en- 
trance pavilion, of 86 feet in width, rises to the height of 201 feet, 
flanked by receding wings of 53 feet in length by 130 feet elevation, 
and receding curtains 118 feet high and 68i feet long, terminating at 





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each of the four corners of the building with towers or pavilions of 48 
feet square, and 161 feet high. 

The whole exterior is bold and effective in outline, and rich in detail, 
being elaborated with highly ornate columns, pilasters, pediments, cor- 
nices, enriched windows, and other appropriate adornments, wrought in 
artistic forms, expressing American ideas and developing American 
genius. 

The main entrances open through the centre pavilions on the four 
fronts, affording passages for pedestrians up and down Broad and Market 
Streets, directly through the basement story. Each of these entrances 
is 18 feet wide and 36 feet high, finished with ornamented archivolts 
and richly sculptured spandrels. 

The basement story is 18 feet high, and stands entirely above the line 
of the pavement. Its exterior is composed of fine white granite of 
massive proportions, forming a fitting base for the vast superstructure it 
supports. 

The exterior of the building, above the basement, includes a principal 
story of 36 feet, and an upper story of 31 feet; the centre pavilions 
having each an additional story of 27 feet, surmounted by an attic of 
15 feet, crowned with a massive dormer window in marble, of 42 feet 
in height, flanked by marble caryatides 20 feet g inches high. The 
corner pavilions are each surmounted by an attic of 12 feet in 
height. 

The entire superstructure, including all its mural embellishments, is 
composed of white marble from the quarries at Lee, in Berkshire 
county, Massachusetts. 

A court-yard of 186 feet north and south by 220 feet east and west 
is located in the centre of the structure, which, together with two 
additional open areas, each measuring 45 feet north and south by 69 feet 
east and west, afford abundance of lii^ht and air to all the adjacent por- 
tions of the building. The principal stories facing the court-yard are, 
for the most part, each divided by a mezzanine or half story, affording 
increased space for smaller rooms. 

From the north side of the central court-yard rises a grand tower of 



34 

90 feet square at the base, gracefully falling off at each story until it 
becomes, at the spring of the dome (which is 315 feet above the level 
of the court-yard), an octagon of 56 feet in diameter, tapering to the 
height of 84 feet, where it is crowned with a statue of the founder of 
Pennsylvania, 36 feet in height, thus completing the extraordinary 
altitude of 535 feet, making it the highest artificial construction in the 
world, while at the same time it possesses the elements of firmness 
and stability equal in degree to those of any known structure of like 
character. 

The foundations of this tower are laid on a bed of solid concrete, 
eight feet thick, at the depth of 20 feet below the surface of the ground, 
and its walls, which at the base are 22 feet in thickness, are built of 
dressed dimension stones, weighing from two to five tons each. 



THE INTERIOR. 

The entire structure will contain 520 rooms, affording ample, con- 
venient, and stately accommodations for the immediate wants of all 
the Departments of the City Government included under the heads of 
Legislative, Executive, and Judicial ; besides which, an amount of sur- 
plus room remains for use in the classification and preservation of the 
archives of the city, for storage and for increased accommodations, 
which will undoubtedly be required from time to time by the natural 
increase of the public business and the accumulation of the public 
records. 

The actual floor room included within the walls amounts to 631,438 
superficial feet, or 14!^ acres, inclusive of the sub-basement, which ex- 
tends under the whole structure. 

The several stories will be approached by four large elevators^ located 
at the intersections of the leading corridors, so as to facilitate the inter- 
course of the citizens with the public offices, courts, and other branches 
of the Government. In addition to these means of approach there will 
be large and convenient stairways in the four corner buildings, and a 



35 

grand staircase in each of the centre pavilions, on the north, south, and 
east fronts. 

Every room in the building will be well lighted, warmed, and venti- 
lated, upon a thorough, effective, and approved system, and every part 
of the structure will be absolutely fireproof. 

The heating and ventilating apparatus for the eastern half of the work 
is now virtually completed, and in operation. The system adopted to 
accomplish these objects consists in drawing a given quantity of pure 
external air from the court-yard into passages 15 feet wide and 11 feet 
high, constructed for the purpose, under all the corridors of the base- 
ment story, and forcing it, by means of a steam fan, among and around 
stacks of radiators heated by steam boilers, into all the rooms and corridors 
of the basement and superstructure oi the eastern half ot the building. 

The fan is located in the southern portion of the sub-basement. It 
has a disc of 12 feet in diameter, with 16 wings on each side, and is 
capable of delivering 855 cubic teet of air per each revolution. It 
is driven by a horizontal engine of 20 horse power, and admits of being 
run up to 120 revolutions per minute, which will deliver throughout 
the eastern half of the building at the rate of 102,564 cubic feet of 
air per minute. 

The warm air is generated by 6 half tubular boilers, 60 inches in 
diameter and 14 feet long, each containing 43 four-inch tubes, and a 
steam dome 30 inches in diameter and 30 inches high. The boilers are 
each 654 horse power, making an aggregate of horse power amounting 
to 394^. They are set in nests of three^ and the pipes and connections 
are so arranged that each boiler may be used independently or in con- 
nection, as may be required. 

This process of heating produces a forced ventilation, inasmuch as 
the air introduced into the rooms of necessity displaces an equal quantity 
of vitiated air, which escapes through ventilating registers opening near 
the floor in every room, and connecting with large exhaust shafts which 
discharge at the height of 170 feet above the level of the ground. 

None of the apparatus for heating and ventilating the western half of 
the building is yet provided for. 



36 

The following materials have been used in the foundations and in the 
portions of the superstructure already executed, to wit: — 

80,325 cubic feet of concrete foundations. 
824,865 cubic feet of foundation stone from Conshohocken, Pa. 
190,703 cubic feet of dressed granite, in the exterior of the base- 
ment and sub-basement, from Concord, N. H., and 
Blue Hill, Maine. 
344,980 cubic feet of marble, actually set. 
32,350 cubic feet of marble on the ground, ready to set. 
8,625 cubic feet of marble at the shops, wrought and 
being wrought. 
10,800 cubic feet of marble at the shops, in the rough. 



396,755 cubic feet of marble in all, from Lee, Mass. 
65,500 cubic feet of bufF and blue sandstone, from Ohio. 
12,800 cubic feet of polished granite, from the quarries on the 
Magaguadavic River, near St. George, N. B., and from 
Quincy and Cape Ann, Mass. 
7,500 cubic feet of hammered granite, from Concord, N. H. 
12,500 cubic feet of polished marble, from Pennsylvania and from 
Rutland, Vt. 
40,185,950 hard bricks. 
159,800 pressed bricks. 
105,000 white bricks. 
78,096 enameled bricks. 

680 tons of wrought iron floor beams. 
74 tons of wrought iron clamps, tie-rods, bolts, braces, com- 
pound girders, &c. 
731 tons of cast iron ceilings, lintels, plates, askewbacks, iron 
bricks, cast iron door and window trimmings, &c. 
23,750 square feet of bond slate. 

The excavations for the cellars and the foundations required the 
rernoval of 145,870 cubic yards of earth. 



37 

The preparation of the ground for excavations involved the change 
of the gas pipes, and of the two water mains of 20 and 30 inches in 
diameter, from their course through the centre of Broad Street, to a 
circuit around the site of the buildings. The tracks of the West 
Philadelphia Passenger Railway were changed from the centre of Market 
Street and laid around the site ; and the Freight Railroad owned by the 
city, and which ran through Market Street, was entirely removed after 
it had ceased to be of use in the transportation of materials for the 
buildings. These changes involved a heavy outlay, which was charged 
to the Commissioners. 



The entire ornamentation of the stone work of the exterior, and also 
the decorative work of the dressed stone for interior finish, has been 
carved in this city from models specially prepared by Alexander M. 
Calder and his assistant, James G. C. Hamilton. A large room in the 
basement on the western side of the southern entrance has been used as 
a modelling room since October, 1877. 



The Supreme Court of the State has had its accommodations since 
January i, 1877 (including the Prothonotary's Office), on the first story 
of the south front, occupying all the rooms on the south side of the 
corridor west of the centie pavilion. The addresses delivered at the 
opening of the session, Monday, January i, 1877, are reported in Vol. 
82 of Pennsylvania State Reports (i Norris). 

The Highway Department was opened for business in the New 
Buildings December 10, 1878, occupying rooms on the first story of 
the eastern front south of the central pavilion. 

The Survey Department removed July i, 1879, to rooms south of 
the central pavilion, on the same floor and front with the Highway 
Department. 

The Head-Quarters of the Division, and of the First Brigade of the 
National Guard of Pennsylvania, were provided with convenient rooms 
adjoining those intended for the Department of Markets and City 
Property, and on November i, 1879, Major-General John F. Hartranft 
and Brigadier-General George R. Snowden, commanding the Division 
and Brigade, took possession of their respective quarters. 

Since January i, 1880, the following Departments have removed to 
rooms fitted up tor their accommodation in the new buildings : 

Boiler Inspectors, January 17, 1880. 
Board of Revision of Taxes, March i, 1880. 
Markets and City Property, April 21, 1880. 
Receiver of Taxes, May 3, 1880. 



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